The Pear :: The pear and the apple are quite different fruits, both in how they are eaten and in how they are grown. And where in Washington they are grown makes all the difference in how pear farmers think of their product. by Tim Steury

Second Acts :: Retired librarian Bunny Levine moved to LA to follow her dream of being in the movies. She and others have found that redefining retirement can lead to greater health and happiness. by Hannelore Sudermann

The Beguiling Science of Bodies in Motion :: Through biomechanics, WSU’s experts smooth a runner’s stride, deepen our understanding of whiplash, study the impact of sports balls on bodies, and seek to build better bones. by Eric Sorensen

Cougar encampments

On home game weekends during football season, WSU’s Pullman campus
goes through a rapid and dramatic transformation. As soon as students
and staff vacate their parking lots, a new community, equipped with
hibachis and hot dog buns, motors in. These RV-driving Cougar fans come
with their families, friends, and sometimes their cats and dogs, too.
They set up outdoor living rooms, roam through campus, and share food
and fun with the friends and strangers around
them.

“It really is its own culture,” says Bridgette Brady, director of
transportation services. “What we have here is very important to WSU.
And we are unique in how many RVs we accommodate and how comprehensive
our program is.”

Brady has a fairly long view of the football parking scene, having
started with the campus transportation office as a student twenty years
ago. She watched the game scene go from a single parking lot of RVs to a
complex community. There were campers then, but they numbered around
100 and mostly filled the Yellow parking lot in front of Beasley
Coliseum. Campers would drop $20 in an honor box to pay for a weekend.
Some of those folks haven’t changed, says Brady. “We’ve seen that same
core of people come back every year.”

But other things did change. Now, demand to park an RV on campus is
so high, eight lots fill with more than 400 recreational vehicles,
massive land yachts and tiny trailers alike. In recent years, the
University has gradually increased the RV rules, to meet both safety
concerns and the growing interest in overnight space. Where the RV
drivers once parked where they pleased, they’re now assigned defined
spots, to offer more organized room and provide fire lanes for emergency
vehicles.

Very few schools offer overnight options, says Brady. The UW, for
example, opens its parking lots at 6:00 a.m. on game day and closes them
just a few hours after the game. Overnight parking is not allowed.

In a recent comparison of Big 10 and Pac-12 schools with lively
tailgating scenes, nearly half did not allow overnight parking. Only
three, WSU, Stanford, and Texas, offered two nights of parking from
Thursday night. That in itself contributes to the sense of a community,
of regular neighbors who see each other over entire weekends.

About 10 years ago, things started changing dramatically. RV-ing to
games grew more popular, and the parking scene became something of a
free-for-all. “We had to make some changes,” says Brady, “particularly
for safety.”

The changes now include pre-season communications with the regulars, a
command center where people can ask questions or air concerns, improved
security, and more bathrooms and dumpsters. Visits from Butch and the
spirit squad have helped soften discontent with the changes,
particularly with long-term tailgaters who weren’t thrilled that the
cost for a season parking pass had risen to $500.

Last year was the big season of change, says Brady. Anticipating even
higher demand because of the new athletic director and the new football
coach, her office started working closely with the Athletics Department
to control and improve the parking environment and, at the same time,
keep those elements of RV overnighting that the regulars so loved.

Brady recently wrote about the WSU
phenomenon for The Parking Professional, a trade magazine. She
focused her story on how transportation services and athletics have
teamed up. “We have become an example for other schools,” she says.